$0 6/5: /&8 4 Grant funds emergency response trailer at Carroll County BERRYVILLE — An emergency response communications trailer was placed into service in Carroll County, purchased with grant funds totaling more than $43,000. The money was used to purchase and equip the trailer and to outfit responders with body armor, radios and training. The bulk of the money was spent on a specially equipped self-contained trailer that arrived complete with a boom antenna, gas generator, backup batteries, and high-tech communications equipment. It will be stored in a secure area at the Carroll County Detention Center — available to all law enforcement departments, fire firefighters and emergency service responders, said Jason Morris, with the Carroll County Office of Emergency Management. According to Morris, it can be used for any kind of emergency; flood, fire, acts of terrorism, or during ice storm power outages since it is self-contained with a gas-powered generator and back-up batteries that can be recharged with the generator. Morris said his office applied for and received a State Homeland Security Group grant in the amount of $28,675, along with a $14,765 Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention grant. Between the two, the trailer was purchased
and outfitted with communications equipment. In addition, the money will be used to install an Arkansas Wireless Information Network system in the county’s OEM office to link to agencies nationwide, and pay for body armor for mem-
bers of the county’s tactical team, and for IED (improvised explosive device) training for all law enforcement personnel throughout the county. – By Anna Mathews Carroll County News
Benton County SO program focuses on youth involvement The Benton County Sheriff’s Office started a new juvenile crime prevention program called PAL, or Police Athletic League. PAL is a national organization that was started in the 1940’s and has now grown all over the U.S. This program is intended to promote good citizenship in youth, promote positive communication between police officers and kids, and to improve overall moral and civic standards in our youth. Volunteers involved in this program include sheriff’s deputies, juvenile probation officers, school representatives, community leaders, and other volunteers throughout the county. Benton County SO personnel have teamed up with the Rogers Activity Center and the Boys and Girls Club of Benton County to offer these activities under the supervision and constructive influence of a responsible law enforcement agency. “We will be sponsoring numerous events, fundraisers, recreational activities and educational activities throughout the year,” said Sgt. 12
Chris Sparks of the Professional Standards Office. “This past summer we selected approximately 60 kids throughout Benton County to be involved in two Jr. Police Academies. During these two weeks the kids were exposed to every division from within the Sheriff’s Office and they had a great time.” The day after the final graduation the Sheriff’s Office was involved in a basketball fundraiser where Sheriff’s Office employees played ex-Arkansas Razorbacks in a 5 on 5 basketball game at the Bentonville High School. All proceeds from the basketball game benefitted the PAL program. A second major fundraiser came in October at the Benton County Fairgrounds in the form of a haunted house, put on by the Sheriff’s Office employees with help from PAL youth. The haunted house ran a total of nine nights and all of the money raised will buy items for the Police Athletic League.
“We are having sheriff’s deputies coach sports teams within the local activity centers and we are trying to have the teams named PAL,” added Sgt. Sparks, who is a key organizer of the program, along with Sheriff Ferguson and Kimberly Sparks, who works for the Benton County Juvenile Probations Office. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
(Did an aspect of county government “make news” recently in your county? Did any
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award, appointment, or pat on the back? Please let us know about it for the next edition of County Lines magazine. You can write up a couple of paragraphs about it, OR if something ran in your local paper, call and ask them to forward the story to us. We encourage you or your newspaper to attach a good-quality photo, too: email rkemp@arcounties.org)
COUNTY LINES, WINTER 2009-2010
